ISLAMABAD: Petroleum group imports witnessed a negative growth of 9.27 percent during the first seven months (July-January) of the current fiscal year 2022-23 and remained $10.611 billion compared to $11.696 billion during the same period of last fiscal year, says the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

The data of exports and imports released by the PBS revealed that petroleum group imports registered 16.34 percent negative growth on a month-on-month (MoM) basis in January 2023 and remained $1.326 billion compared to $1.585 billion in December and registered 12.42 percent negative growth on a year-on-year (YoY) basis when compared to $1.514 billion in January 2022.

Petroleum products witnessed 14.74 percent negative growth during the first seven months of the current fiscal year and remained $4.889 billion compared to $5.734 billion during the same period of the last fiscal year.

On MoM basis, it remained $687.615 million in January 2023 compared to $649.862 million in December 2022 and registered 5.81 percent growth. On a YoY basis, petroleum products imports witnessed a growth of 1.47 percent when compared to $677.684 million in January 2022.

Petroleum crude imports witnessed a growth of 10.90 percent during the first seven months of the current fiscal year 2022-23 and remained $3.1 billion when compared to $2.795 billion during the same period of last year. On a MoM basis, petroleum crude imports registered 35.51 percent negative growth and remained $324.294 million in January 2023 compared to $502.858 million in December 2022. On a YoY basis, petroleum crude imports witnessed a negative growth of 15.83 percent when compared to $385.280 million in January 2022.

Natural gas, liquefied imports witnessed a negative growth of 20.84 percent during the first seven months of the current fiscal year and remained at $2.192 billion compared to $2.769 billion during the same period of last fiscal year.

Agricultural and other chemicals group imports witnessed 35.45 percent negative growth during the first seven months of the current fiscal year and remained at $5.826 billion compared to $9.025 billion during the same period of last fiscal year.

Machinery group imports witnessed 45.15 percent negative growth during the first seven months of the current fiscal year and remained at $3.734 billion compared to $6.809 billion during the same period of last fiscal year. Power generation machinery registered 69.26 percent negative growth during the first seven of the current fiscal year and remained $332.225 million compared to $1.080 billion during the same period of the last fiscal year.

Transport group imports witnessed 50.61 percent negative growth during the first seven months of the current fiscal year and remained at $1.3 billion compared to $2.642 billion during the same period of last fiscal year.

Food group imports witnessed 6.29 percent growth during the period under review and remained at $5.983 billion compared to $5.629 billion during the same period of last fiscal year.

The country’s imports during July-January, 2022-23 totalled $36.093 billion (provisional) as against $46.598 billion during the corresponding period of last year showing a decrease of 22.54 percent.

The imports in January 2023 were $4.875 billion (provisional) as compared to $5.154 billion in December 2022 showing a decrease of 5.41 percent and by 19.23 percent as compared to $6.036 billion in January 2022.

Main commodities of imports during January 2023 were petroleum products (Rs160,996 million), palm oil (Rs85,283 million), petroleum crude (Rs75,929 million), natural gas, liquified (Rs56,845 million), iron and steel (Rs51,158 million), plastic materials (Rs48,890 million), raw cotton (Rs43,235 million), wheat unmilled (Rs38,709 million), electric machinery and apparatus (Rs34,902 million), and iron and steel scrap (Rs26,323 million).

Pakistan’s trade deficit narrowed by 32.10 per cent during the first seven months (July-January) of the current fiscal year and stood at $19.594 billion compared to $28.859 billion during the same period of last fiscal year.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023